It’s always a risk to offer your allegiance, love, support or whatever, to another person, organization, government or whatever. That includes football teams.
The risk is that you might be rejected, hurt, or at least, disappointed. We were disappointed last weekend when the Oakland Raiders lost SuperBowl XXXVII to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was, after all, just a football game.
The disappointment was not that they were beaten, it’s that they lost. I was reading Gregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback column on ESPN.com this week. I enjoyed it because he seemed to have some of the same thoughts I did about the game and since he had press credentials he knows more about what actually was going on.
In the column, Easterbrook revealed something that seemed apparent but is so outlandish I’m not even sure it’s true.
As you know, Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden was head coach at Oakland last season and then was acquired by Tampa Bay. So the Raiders were mostly a team Gruden created.
Not only that, but in preparation for the SuperBowl, he taught the Bucs defense the code words that Raiders’ quarterback Rich Gannon uses. That is not unfair. It is good coaching. It is using any resource available to achieve success.
Gruden knew, and, according to Easterbrook, the Raiders knew he knew. But they never changed the codes. Easterbrook quotes the New York Daily News as reporting that when Gannon audibled, Tamp Bay defenders knew what was coming.
It looked like it.
Speaking of betrayed allegiances, NASCAR seems to be ready to abandon more of the people and communities which helped it reach its currently lofty pinnacle.
NASCAR wants to rearrange its schedule to get more races in major markets. “Major markets” means cities outside of Dixie.
Tracks like Darlington, North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, Atlanta Motor Speedway and Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte all face the likelihood that they will lose one of the two NASCAR races they have on their schedules each year.
NASCAR already runs 36 Winston Cup races each year and there really isn’t room on the calendar for more. So if the organization is to have events to put on in front of larger crowds, they have to come from somewhere.
Reportedly Rockingham, Lowe’s and Atlanta don’t always sell out, while shiny new facilities in places like Las Vegas and Chicago do.
Add to the mix, NASCAR’s wish to have a race to help settle the Texas Question. Bruton Smith, a rival of the France family, which runs NASCAR, owns Lowe’s and Atlanta, as well as Texas Motor Speedway.
There is one Cup event for Texas. Smith wants another one but not at the expense of giving up one of the two dates at his other tracks. In addition, one of the stockholders of TMS is suing NASCAR to get a second race.
(Note to NASCAR, Hispanics now make up the largest minority in the U.S. Texas might be a good place to add a second event.)
And be careful how you treat folks on your way up. You’ll see them again on your way down.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave ….
Another seedy, gossipy, but delightful little story preceding the start of the 2003 season is Gordon vs. Gordon.
Attorneys for Brook Gordon have subpoenaed records they say will help determine how much Jeff Gordon is worth as a team owner.
They want to see the records of how prize money is distributed, how much drivers are paid, how much sponsors pay, and what kind of income this whole thing produces.
You see, none of this information is public. Nobody in the business tells anybody else how much they make or how much they charge.
Certain things may cost a sponsor huge sums with one team and be complementary at another. Different sponsors may be charged different fees for the same privilege.
Some drivers on the same team may be paid vastly different amounts and their incentive packages and bonuses may be widely out of phase.
It’s a good ol’ boy system and it’s played close to the vest.